It still warrants a double-take. Seeing St. John’s ranked among the nation’s top 10 teams looks like a misprint to the eyes. When the season started, it would’ve felt like a safer bet to never see the school ranked so highly again in your lifetime, an honor that could only exist in earlier eras, as likely to return as Ebbets Field.

But Monday, St. John’s moved up another three spots, coming in at No. 7 in the latest AP poll. It is the team’s highest ranking since Dec. 2, 1991. It is their third straight week inside the top 10, its longest stretch in 26 years.

The Red Storm (24-4) have lost once in 2025, entering Wednesday’s game at Butler off their best game of the season, in which the Johnnies completed a season-sweep of the two-time defending national champion, UConn, and moved another step closer to their first outright Big East title since 1985.

It’s almost impossible to believe this is the same program that suffered through six seasons of Norm Roberts, through the false promise of Steve Lavin, through the misguided nostalgia of Chris Mullin, through the uninspired tenure of Mike Anderson.